Shook Beats
04-21-2011, 12:23 AM
I'm on Myspace and Facebook and all these other music related sites and it's just amazing to me how many artists there are out there trying to promote there music and be heard without the first idea of where to start. So, what I've done was taken the liberty to put together a little checklist for up and coming artists to go by in order to start creating a buzz for themselves and eventually be able to do music full time and possibly even land a major recording contract sometime down the road if you still even want it.
So here goes..................
#1) 99.99% of most of you artists out there have to realize one thing and one thing only................. (You Suck!) Plain and simple. Now, keep in mind that this is not me trying to put you down or discourage you from doing music, but it is me trying to deliver a wake up call so please listen closely.
There is nothing wrong with sending your songs to people for constructive criticism, but what gets me is all these cats who drop these mixtapes that they are trying to sell with no fan base, no beats, half ass mixes, and whatever else they decide to throw on the track that they "think will sell". To me, that"s just wrong, and I want to see you succeed, that"s why I'm posting this thread so that hopefully you can take something from it and make yourselves better.
Some things To Realize when trying to get a major deal ***Very Important**
"IF YOU AREN'T SELLING ALBUMS ALREADY THEN NO LABEL WANTS YOU"
"IT TAKES SOME FORM OF AN INVESTMENT IN ORDER TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL IN ANY BUSINESS"
"IF YOU DON'T TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUS WHO ELSE WILL"
Music is an art form, thats why people who do music are called "artists"
The best thing about doing music, is the opportunity to give listeners something that they've never ever heard before. Which comes from you being yourself and showing your style and who you are exactly.
People talk all the time about the decrease in album sales over the last few years and the state of hip hop and if you ask me there is only "one" thing to blame for all of it and thats "the quality of the music being put out" period.
So I say that to you only to say this. Be yourself, master your sound, your craft , do what feels good to you, not what you think will feel good to someone else. Because if you only do music to please everyone else then your not only cheating yourself, you're also cheating your listeners. It's not rocket science. People are tired of hearing about guns, sex, drugs, and money and those are whats killing the game right there. The more of it you talk about the less people will want to hear you.
Crack Rap is Played
Crack Rap is Played
Crack Rap is Played!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bottom Line.....
Too many of you artists out there are trying to sound like everyone else out there just to sell records and if you are then here's my advice, find another industry to mess up because your lack of originality and the fact that you are afraid of being yourself is making it harder for artists who really do have talent because alot of people arent giving them a chance simply becuase they think they sound like you.
Now, for those of you artists who do take pride in what you do and are working harder and harder every day to become better artists here are some things that should be able to help you.
#1 Start keeping a Database of Everyone that you come in contact with who is into your type of music.
This means that anyone that says they like your music, or they promote, or do shows, or whatever, you always want to be able to get in contact with these people if you need to.
I know nowadays cell phones pretty much do it all and you can put names, phone numbers, emails, an physical addresses in at the same time which comes in handy later on down the road once you're ready to sell your albums.
If you don't have that though, try joining a site that offers a mailing list option so that your potential fans can sign up in order to receive your updates. Then when your promoting you simply send listeners to your website so will have the opportunity to sign up.
What does a database do you may ask? Well this does a couple of things #1 it keeps track off all your followers so that when you've come to the point that you're ready to sell your music you will already have a long list of people that you can send to your website to buy. #2 On the day that your sales are so good that a record label calls you up (notice I said calls you up, not you calling them up) you will have records of everything that you need in order to get that record deal if you even still want it like sales, the number of fans you have, average show attendace, etc.
This is probably the most important thing when it comes to marketing.
#2 Get your own domain name and website going.
Plain and simple, it shows that you are serious about your music and the business that you are in and you expect to succeed. Have you ever went to someones webite and it was poorly designed, and the music sounded like crap? If so then realize that that's exactly how people are going to think of you if you don't get serious about your music asap.
#3 Collab with other artists in your database.
You ever listen to the radio and say to yourself "man Drake is on everybodys songs" or "So in so" is killing the game right now he/she is on everything?
Well thats exactly how you have to be. Network with other artists that are as serious as you are and make music together. That way people may here you on a feature and go looking for your music. My advice to you is to keep a database of artists as well.
Put them in your cellphones like this.......
Use abreviations to help you, say you meet a producer for instance, in your phone it should look like this...
Contact
Pro - Jack Beats (Producer)
Artist - Nas (Artist)
Gphx - Tru Media (Graphix)
Fan - Alicia Myers (Fan)
Eng - Rock Hard Studios (Engineer)
Promo - Mike Dawg (Promoter)
Mang - Joey Rock (Manager)
Now you have people you can get beats from, collab with, get graphix, get to mix your music, and people that you can send free music to in order to promote your up and coming albums as well as get feedback. Also, you've even got a promoter who can possibly get you on stage in front of some people.
Trust me if you do this for a year, you'd be suprised at the people that you will meet and how many numbers you will have.
So to sum all of this up for starters, keep record of everyone that you meet. Try your best to keep in close contact with everyone until it gets out of hand and you have to hire someone else to do it.
Be very particular about the music that you do (Always be real to yourself and you'll never have any regrets in the future)
Take your sound serious, which means, sound quality, content, and who you do features with, but make sure you do features it's a great and easy way to promote because most of the time your either dropping a 16 or a hook, one or the other. So it doesn't take much of your time and that allows other people to promote your music for you helping you to get more fans and more exposure, feel me?
Now these are some very simple tips to get you started, if you have any questions or wish to add on something that could help some of these lost artists then anyone please feel free to do so.
Thank you,
Shook
Hit me up anytime
Phone|Text 804-503-9554
Email Shookbeats01@gmail.com
So here goes..................
#1) 99.99% of most of you artists out there have to realize one thing and one thing only................. (You Suck!) Plain and simple. Now, keep in mind that this is not me trying to put you down or discourage you from doing music, but it is me trying to deliver a wake up call so please listen closely.
There is nothing wrong with sending your songs to people for constructive criticism, but what gets me is all these cats who drop these mixtapes that they are trying to sell with no fan base, no beats, half ass mixes, and whatever else they decide to throw on the track that they "think will sell". To me, that"s just wrong, and I want to see you succeed, that"s why I'm posting this thread so that hopefully you can take something from it and make yourselves better.
Some things To Realize when trying to get a major deal ***Very Important**
"IF YOU AREN'T SELLING ALBUMS ALREADY THEN NO LABEL WANTS YOU"
"IT TAKES SOME FORM OF AN INVESTMENT IN ORDER TO BECOME SUCCESSFUL IN ANY BUSINESS"
"IF YOU DON'T TAKE YOURSELF SERIOUS WHO ELSE WILL"
Music is an art form, thats why people who do music are called "artists"
The best thing about doing music, is the opportunity to give listeners something that they've never ever heard before. Which comes from you being yourself and showing your style and who you are exactly.
People talk all the time about the decrease in album sales over the last few years and the state of hip hop and if you ask me there is only "one" thing to blame for all of it and thats "the quality of the music being put out" period.
So I say that to you only to say this. Be yourself, master your sound, your craft , do what feels good to you, not what you think will feel good to someone else. Because if you only do music to please everyone else then your not only cheating yourself, you're also cheating your listeners. It's not rocket science. People are tired of hearing about guns, sex, drugs, and money and those are whats killing the game right there. The more of it you talk about the less people will want to hear you.
Crack Rap is Played
Crack Rap is Played
Crack Rap is Played!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bottom Line.....
Too many of you artists out there are trying to sound like everyone else out there just to sell records and if you are then here's my advice, find another industry to mess up because your lack of originality and the fact that you are afraid of being yourself is making it harder for artists who really do have talent because alot of people arent giving them a chance simply becuase they think they sound like you.
Now, for those of you artists who do take pride in what you do and are working harder and harder every day to become better artists here are some things that should be able to help you.
#1 Start keeping a Database of Everyone that you come in contact with who is into your type of music.
This means that anyone that says they like your music, or they promote, or do shows, or whatever, you always want to be able to get in contact with these people if you need to.
I know nowadays cell phones pretty much do it all and you can put names, phone numbers, emails, an physical addresses in at the same time which comes in handy later on down the road once you're ready to sell your albums.
If you don't have that though, try joining a site that offers a mailing list option so that your potential fans can sign up in order to receive your updates. Then when your promoting you simply send listeners to your website so will have the opportunity to sign up.
What does a database do you may ask? Well this does a couple of things #1 it keeps track off all your followers so that when you've come to the point that you're ready to sell your music you will already have a long list of people that you can send to your website to buy. #2 On the day that your sales are so good that a record label calls you up (notice I said calls you up, not you calling them up) you will have records of everything that you need in order to get that record deal if you even still want it like sales, the number of fans you have, average show attendace, etc.
This is probably the most important thing when it comes to marketing.
#2 Get your own domain name and website going.
Plain and simple, it shows that you are serious about your music and the business that you are in and you expect to succeed. Have you ever went to someones webite and it was poorly designed, and the music sounded like crap? If so then realize that that's exactly how people are going to think of you if you don't get serious about your music asap.
#3 Collab with other artists in your database.
You ever listen to the radio and say to yourself "man Drake is on everybodys songs" or "So in so" is killing the game right now he/she is on everything?
Well thats exactly how you have to be. Network with other artists that are as serious as you are and make music together. That way people may here you on a feature and go looking for your music. My advice to you is to keep a database of artists as well.
Put them in your cellphones like this.......
Use abreviations to help you, say you meet a producer for instance, in your phone it should look like this...
Contact
Pro - Jack Beats (Producer)
Artist - Nas (Artist)
Gphx - Tru Media (Graphix)
Fan - Alicia Myers (Fan)
Eng - Rock Hard Studios (Engineer)
Promo - Mike Dawg (Promoter)
Mang - Joey Rock (Manager)
Now you have people you can get beats from, collab with, get graphix, get to mix your music, and people that you can send free music to in order to promote your up and coming albums as well as get feedback. Also, you've even got a promoter who can possibly get you on stage in front of some people.
Trust me if you do this for a year, you'd be suprised at the people that you will meet and how many numbers you will have.
So to sum all of this up for starters, keep record of everyone that you meet. Try your best to keep in close contact with everyone until it gets out of hand and you have to hire someone else to do it.
Be very particular about the music that you do (Always be real to yourself and you'll never have any regrets in the future)
Take your sound serious, which means, sound quality, content, and who you do features with, but make sure you do features it's a great and easy way to promote because most of the time your either dropping a 16 or a hook, one or the other. So it doesn't take much of your time and that allows other people to promote your music for you helping you to get more fans and more exposure, feel me?
Now these are some very simple tips to get you started, if you have any questions or wish to add on something that could help some of these lost artists then anyone please feel free to do so.
Thank you,
Shook
Hit me up anytime
Phone|Text 804-503-9554
Email Shookbeats01@gmail.com